Here's the latest wrap-up of assorted links and short local news items of interest:
* Jazz St. Louis' Devin Rodino was on the local cable program STL TV Live this week talking about next Thursday's "Jazz Under The Stars" event at the St. Louis Science Center. You can see the interview here.
* Pianist Peter Martin will be the recipient of an Excellence in Arts award at the 2012 St. Louis Arts Awards, which will be presented Monday by the Arts and Education Council at a fundraiser at the Chase Park Plaza. Martin will perform at the event with singer Dianne Reeves, for whom he serves as musical director. The evening also will include a performance by trumpet player Jason Brown, fine arts director for the Riverview Gardens School District and Arts Educator of the Year, with the Jazz Edge Big Band.
* Also tonight, the St. Louis Artists Guild opens "Oh! You Pretty Things: Indie Music and Design," an exhibition exploring graphic design in the St. Louis indie music scene with an emphasis on the D.I.Y (do-it-yourself) aesthetic and philosophy. The exhibit is free and open to the public, and continues through Saturday, March 17.
Though this weekend's offerings of jazz and creative music in St. Louis are less numerous than last week's, there are at least a few noteworthy events happening around town. So, let's take a look and see what's coming up...
On Thursday, saxophonist and clarinetist Mike Buerk and his 13-piece big band will open this semester's Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University with a performance of music of the Swing Era.
Also on Thursday, the Young Friends organizations of Jazz St. Louis and the St. Louis Science Center are cosponsoring an event called "Jazz Under The Stars" at the Planetarium in Forest Park, featuring music from guitarist Eric Slaughter's trio; and alto saxophonist Kendrick Smith's quartet plays at Robbie's House of Jazz.
On Friday and Saturday, singer/songwriter Javier Mendoza (pictured) returns to Jazz at the Bistro. Though Mendoza's usual sound is more along the lines of Latin-flavored pop/rock, for these shows he reportedly has rearranged his songs and augmented his band with the fine guitarist Dave Black to add a jazz aspect to his music.
Also on Friday, guitarist Matthew Von Doran and his trio play at Broadway Bean Coffee, and Robbie's will feature a band called Elements, about whom I can tell you absolutely nothing. (The club's website has no information about them, and Google serves up a number of groups with similar names, none based in St. Louis. Maybe they're brand new?)
On Saturday, Robbie's will feature their house band, led by co-owner/trombonist Robert Edwards, and on Tuesday, they'll host their usual weekly jazz jam session.
For more jazz-related events in St. Louis this weekend and beyond, please visit the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar, which can be found on the left sidebar of the site or by clicking here. You also can keep up with all the latest news by following St. Louis Jazz Notes on Twitter at http://twitter.com/StLJazzNotes or clicking the "Like" icon on the StLJN Facebook page.
(If you have calendar items, band schedule information, news tips, links, or anything else you think may be of interest to StLJN's readers, please email the information to stljazznotes (at) yahoo (dot) com. If you have photos, MP3s or other digital files, please send links, not attachments.)
(Edited 1/27/11 to add the Matthew Von Doran gig.)
The Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University has announced its schedule of free concerts for the winter/spring semester.
Guitarist Matthew Von Doran, backed by bassist Bob DeBoo and drummer Steve Davis, will get things started for 2010 at 8:00 p.m. this Thursday, January 21.
In keeping with the pattern of the last several semesters, the Jazz at Holmes series this spring also will feature a visiting performer along with the lineup of St. Louis talent: singer Jan Shapiro (pictured), a former St. Louisan who now heads the vocal department at Berklee College of Music in Boston, and who will perform on Thursday, April 8.
The Jazz at Holmes series presents concerts at 8:00 p.m. most Thursdays while school is in session. This semester's schedule also includes a concert on Saturday, February 27 by pianist Jay Oliver's quartet. Here's the complete Jazz at Holmes winter/spring 2010 schedule:
Thursday, February 4: Jason Swagler Thursday, February 11: Dave Stone & Randy Holmes play the music of Don Cherry & Ornette Coleman Thursday, February 18: Curt Landes Quartet Saturday, February 27: Jay Oliver Quartet
Thursday, March 4: Paul DeMarinis Thursday, March 18: Bensid Thigpen Thursday, March 25: Kara Baldus
All Jazz at Holmes concerts are free and open to the public. Holmes Lounge is located in Ridgley Hall, on the west side of Brookings Quadrangle near the intersection of Brookings and Hoyt drives. For further information, call Sue Taylor at 314-862-0874 or email staylor@wustl.edu.
(Edited 1/24/10 because Jazz at Holmes switched the originally announced dates for the Curt Landes and Dave Stone/Randy Hplmes concerts, and to add tags.)
Holiday hustle-and-bustle may be going into full effect, but over the next few days there are a number of events in St. Louis that you may want to stop and check out if you're a fan of jazz and creative music.
Tonight, singer Erin Bode opens a two-night run at Jazz at the Bistro. If my understanding is correct, this will be a holiday themed show, which means Bode likely will be performing music from her CD A Cold December Night, which was released last year at this time. Word is that Bode and band also have been recording a new CD for release next year, so it's possible that some of those new songs may find their way into her sets as well.
Also this evening, just around the corner from the Bistro, pianist Bill Charlap and singer Sandy Stewart (pictured) will open a four-night stand of performances presented by Cabaret St. Louis at the Kranzberg Art Center. Charlap was here with the Blue Note 7 in February at the Sheldon, and often is ranked among the top piano players in jazz by critics and various jazz polls. For her part, Stewart, who is Charlap's mother, had a thriving career in musical theater, cabaret and jazz before retiring in the 1960s to raise her family; her comeback in the 1990s prompted renewed interest in both her older work and her present day performances, as described in this feature story from the New York Times.
On Thursday, guitarist Matthew Von Doran performs a free show with his trio at Broadway Bean, a new coffee house, art gallery and music venue at 7619 South Broadway in the Carondelet neighborhood.
Moving on to the weekend, on Friday the smooth jazz saxophonist Najee will headline a "Jazz Explosion" show, also featuring unspecified "special guests," at the Ambassador Events Center, 9800 Halls Ferry Rd.
Continuing in that contemporary, electrified vein, the quartet Good 4 The Soul, featuring pianist Adaron "Pops" Jackson, bassist John King, guitarist Shaun Robinson and drummer James Jackson, will bring their mix of jazz, funk, soul and gospel back to the Bistro on Friday and Saturday nights.
For information on more jazz and creative music events this weekend and beyond, please visit the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar, available for viewing on the left sidebar, or by clicking here. Also, you can follow St. Louis Jazz Notes on Twitter at http://twitter.com/StLJazzNotes and become a "fan" by signing up on the StLJN Facebook page.
(If you have calendar items, band schedule information, news tips, links, or anything else you think may be of interest to StLJN's readers, please email the information to stljazznotes (at) yahoo (dot) com. If you have photos, MP3s or other digital files, please send links, not attachments.)
Jazz St. Louis has announced that trombonist Lamar Harris (pictured) and his group Tribal Funk will perform at Jazz at the Bistro on Friday, October 30 and Saturday, October 31.
Harris replaces guitarist Matthew Von Doran, who originally was set to perform on those dates when the Bistro's season schedule was announced earlier this year. In a brief phone interview, Von Doran said he had to forgo his Halloween weekend at the Bistro after getting hired for a series of lucrative road gigs with Latin/pop group La Quinta Estación, but he hopes to reschedule for next year.
Tickets for Harris are priced at $15 for general admission, $10 for students. The news release sent out by Jazz St. Louis announcing the schedule change did not include any information on refunds or exchanges; however, if the usual JSL policy is in effect, those who have already purchased tickets to see Von Doran can either use them to see Harris instead, or get a refund at the point of purchase.
Though we're still in what's generally the slow season of the year for jazz in St. Louis, there are a couple of noteworthy events coming up this week featuring nationally known musicians with ties to the St. Louis area.
On Friday, the highly acclaimed baritone saxophonist Hamiett Bluiett, who was born and still lives in Brooklyn, IL, opens the new venue Robbie's House of Jazz (in the former Cookie's Jazz and More location at 20 Allen Ave. in Webster Groves), accompanied by percussionist Kahil El'Zabar (pictured) and bassist Curtis Lundy.
The Bluiett-El'Zabar-Lundy ensemble also will perform at the club again on Saturday night, and both evenings should be nice opportunities to hear three world-class musicians adept at playing both inside and outside the changes up close in an intimate setting. For a bit more about Robbie's House of Jazz and its owners Dorothy and Robert Edwards, see this post from last week.
Also notable is the show next Tuesday at The Gramophone, when guitarists Matthew Von Doran, who moved to St. Louis a couple of years ago, and Corey Christiansen, a former St. Louisan, will team up for a duo performance, backed by bassist Bob Deboo and drummer Kyle Honeycutt. As mentioned in this post announcing the show, Von Doran and Christiansen are good friends, and the combination of their personal rapport and contrasting styles - the former leaning toward fusion, the latter tending more traditional - should make for some entertaining listening.
(If you have calendar items, band schedule information, news tips, links, or anything else you think may be of interest to StLJN's readers, please email the information to stljazznotes (at) yahoo (dot) com. If you have photos, MP3s or other digital files, please send links, not attachments.)
This just in: In another welcome development during this relatively slow time of year for live jazz in St. Louis, guitarists Corey Christiansen (pictured) and Matthew Von Doran will team up for a performance at 9:00 p.m. on Tuesday, August 18 at The Gramophone.
Christiansen and Von Doran are old pals who have worked together before; in fact, Von Doran bought and now resides in the Webster Groves house that Christiansen vacated when he left St. Louis to move back to Utah in the fall of 2007. Tickets for their August 18 performance, which also will include bassist Bob DeBoo and drummer Kyle Honeycutt, will be $5 at the door.
Unfortunately, this will be the last Tuesday night of jazz music at The Gramophone for now, as the club has ended the Tuesday night series of free shows that it co-presented with Jazz St. Louis. "We tried for almost 18 months and just could not get people out on Tuesday, even for free," said co-owner Andrew "Roo" Yawitz via email. "I hope to continue to feature jazz at The Gramophone, just not as a weekly event." For now, the club will be closed on Tuesdays except for touring acts and local special events like the Von Doran/Christiansen show. Regular business hours at The Gramophone will continue from 8:00 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays.
(Edited after posting to add the last two sentences. Edited again on 8/11/09 to add the correct bass player and drummer for the show.)
The ninth annual Old Webster Jazz and Blues Festival will take place from noon to 11:00 p.m., Saturday, September 19 along Gore, Allen and Lockwood avenues in the business district of the St. Louis suburb of Webster Groves. Admission is free.
It looks like the weather in St. Louis will be going directly from "soaked" to "sizzling" this weekend, but fortunately, there's jazz and creative music all around town (including several free concerts) to provide diversion from the onset of another steamy summer in the Gateway City.
Here's a brief look at what's going on over the next few days:
Tonight, clarinetist Scott Alberici plays a free concert for the Whitaker Music Festival at the Missouri Botanical Garden. With any luck, the rain that has plagued the event for the past couple of weeks will stay away tonight, but if the skies look threatening, you can check the Garden's Web site or tune into WSIE (FM 88.7) for an update.
On Thursday, pianist and singer Curt Landes performs a free show for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University, and singer Erin Bode is doing a free concert outdoors at Bluebird Park in Ellisville.
Then on Friday, Latin/jazz group Musica Slesa (pictured at top left) returns to Jazz at the Bistro for the first evening of a two-night stand, while guitarist Matthew Von Doran will bring some jazz out to St. Charles county with a show in the performance space at Mozingo Music in O'Fallon. Also on Friday, the St. Louis Jazz Cafe has guitarist Gregg Haynes, while Brandt's will feature singer Kim Massie.
Saturday afternoon brings the KMOX Jazz and Wine Festival to the grounds of the historic Cabanne House in Forest Park (at the corner of Lindell and Union). This year's lineup featuring Erin Bode, Kim Massie, the Original Knights of Swing big band, and saxophonist Tim Cunningham. (Note that, contrary to what some folks searching online seem to be thinking, this is not a free event; tickets are $10 in advance, with a $3 surcharge for online purchases, or $15 at the gate.)
Also on Saturday, singer, actress, comic and Belleville, Illinois native Lea DeLaria (pictured at right) performs a free concert as part of Metro East Pride Festival in downtown Belleville; saxophonist Rod Tate is at the St. Louis Jazz Cafe; and the Joe Pastor Jazz Trinity plays at Brandt's.
As always, this summary only covers some of the notable performances happening over the next few days; for more listings of jazz-related events in St. Louis this weekend and beyond, please visit the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar.
(If you have calendar items, band schedule information, news tips, links, or anything else you think may be of interest to StLJN's readers, please email the information to stljazznotes (at) yahoo (dot) com. If you have photos, MP3s or other digital files, please send links, not attachments.)
With Memorial Day weekend coming up, it's a relatively light few days in the offing for live jazz and creative music in St. Louis. Moreover, with StLJN HQ still in recovery mode after a computer crash Tuesday night, yr. humble editor has his hands full right now with software re-installs, restoring files from backup, and similar fun-inducing tasks. Still, there are a few noteworthy shows on tap this weekend, so here's a brief look:
The tenth annual Glendale Jazz Festival is this Friday night at the city hall complex in Glendale. This year's event will feature music from the St. Louis Stompers, singer Denise Thimes, and Terry Thompson's band Swing Alive with vocalist Dean Christopher, plus jazz radio personality Don Wolff as MC. It's free and open to the public.
Singer Erin Bode has a busy weekend planned, with a gig at Cyrano's in Webster Groves tonight, a free show on Saturday afternoon at the Crestwood Court mall, another show that same night at Peppertini's in Chesterfield, and a Sunday afternoon performance at the Blumenhof Winery in Dutzow.
(If you have calendar items, band schedule information, news tips, links, or anything else you think may be of interest to StLJN's readers, please email the information to stljazznotes (at) yahoo (dot) com. If you have photos, MP3s or other digital files, please send links, not attachments.)
There's lots going on in jazz and creative music this week in St. Louis, and so we bring you StLJN's weekly highlights post slightly earlier than usual to perhaps better help facilitate some advance planning.
One of the week's major attractions is the team-up of pianist and singer Les McCann (pictured) and saxophonist Javon Jackson, who will perform Wednesday through Saturday at Jazz at the Bistro. Both men previously have led their own bands at the Bistro, but their current collaboration, dubbed "Swiss Movement Revisited" in honor of McCann's famed partnership with the late saxophonist Eddie Harris, will be making its St. Louis debut.
Though McCann, who turned 73 last month, and Jackson, who's 43, are from different generations, they seem like a natural musical match - both men have made a lot of groove-oriented music over the course of their respective careers, but both also have shown a proclivity for occasional detours into more adventurous and/or eccentric territory. For some video of McCann and Jackson together, see this post from last Saturday. You may also enjoy perusing this interview Jackson did with StLJN back in 2005.
Also returning to St. Louis this week for a four-night stand is songwriter and poet Fran Landesman, who's performing a cabaret show called "The Gaslight Square Years" beginning Wednesday and running through Saturday at the Gaslight Theater, 356 N. Boyle in the Central West End. Landesman is something of a St. Louis legend, having (with her husband Jay) operated the Crystal Palace nightclub, one of the key venues during Gaslight Square's heyday in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Landesman also co-wrote (with pianist Tommy Wolf) the musical The Nervous Set, which ran briefly on Broadway and yielded the frequently recorded tune "Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most." The St. Louis Beacon's Bob Duffy, a former Post-Dispatch writer who knew her way back in the day, has a feature story about Landesman and her show here.
UPDATE, 11:35 p.m., 10/23/08 - 52nd City's Thomas Crone blogs his impressions of Landesman's opening night performance here.
Elsewhere in town, NYC-based multi-intrumentalist Cooper-Moore, who plays original jazz- and blues-influenced music on both conventional and self-invented instruments, will perform Saturday at Joe's Cafe and Sunday at the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site's Rosebud Cafe. Cooper-Moore has roots in the 1970s avant garde and loft jazz scene, but since then he's forged his own distinctive musical path. For more on Cooper-Moore's performances, see these twoposts. You also can see an excerpt from a Cooper-Moore improv with bassist William Parker in the embedded video window below.
In addition to these distinguished visitors, St. Louis' local musicians also have much to offer this week, starting on Thursday when saxophonist Dave Stone and pianist Adam Maness (of Erin Bode's group and Orange) perform a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University. If you're still in the mood for more music after Stone and Maness, you can head over to Brandt's in the nearby Delmar Loop and catch the gypsy jazz stylings of Sandy Weltman and Hot Club Caravan.
On Friday, the Legacy Jazz Quintet, led by pianist Phil Dunlap and trumpeter Anthony Wiggins, will do a free performance in the St. Louis Art Museum's Griggs Gallery, while singer, pianist and saxophonist Hugh "Peanuts" Whalum plays at Brandt's.
Then on Saturday, guitarist William Lenihan's quartet will do a free concert at the Kemper Museum on the Wash U. campus as part of the ongoing series accompanying the museum's current "Birth of the Cool" exhibit.
Sunday evening brings two more events of interest, starting with a performance by guitarist Matthew Von Doran's trio, featuring Nick Jost on bass and Miles Vandiver on drums, at Music Folk in Webster Groves. (UPDATE - 11:50 p.m., 10/22/08: Von Doren emailed to say that his show Sunday at Music Folk has been canceled, but will be rescheduled at a later date.)
That same night, the 45th Oliver Sain Soul Reunion will take place at the Sheldon Concert Hall, featuring blues and soul from singers Renee Smith, Roland Johnson, Mae Wheeler, Skeet Rogers, Uvee Hayes and Beau Shelby as well as a goodly helping of Sain's funky instrumental compositions as played by the current Oliver Sain Revue. Dan Durchholz has more on Sain's legacy and this year's show in an article for the St. Louis Beacon, found here. (Full disclosure: Yr. humble editor is a member of said Revue, and will be at the keyboards Sunday night at the Sheldon.)
On Monday morning, Red Lehr and the Old St. Louis Levee Band, featuring pianist Pat Joyce, will do a "Coffee Concert" of traditional jazz at the Sheldon. (They'll repeat the program at another performance on Tuesday morning.)
On Monday evening, the annual TKT Memorial Scholarship Concert takes place at Webster University's Winifred Moore Auditorium. This year's event pays tribute to the musical legacies of Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, and Billy Eckstine, with featured performers including singers Jeanne Trevor, Sherri Drake, and Eddie Eaton; pianists Marion Miller, Carolbeth True, and Kim Portnoy; guitarists Steve Schenkel and Tom Byrne; Paul DeMarinis on tenor sax; and the rhythm section of Willem von Hombracht on bass and Kevin Gianino on drums. Also on Monday evening, the Sessions Big Band continues their ongoing series of gigs at BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups downtown.
(If you have calendar items, band schedule information, news tips, links, or anything else you think may be of interest to StLJN's readers, please email the information to stljazznotes (at) yahoo (dot) com. If you have photos, MP3s or other digital files, please send links, not attachments.)
The International Association of Jazz Educators is having its annual conference this week in Toronto, and among the more than 100 concerts associated with the event will be a performance by guitarist Matthew Von Doran, who will be doing a set as part of Mel Bay Records' guitar ensemble MB3 alongside fellow plectrists Corey Christiansen and Vic Juris. St. Louis native Marty Ehrlich will also perform at the conference in a duo with pianist Myra Melford.
Guitarist Matthew Von Doren, a relatively recent addition to the St. Louis scene, will perform a free concert and clinic at 7:30 p.m. this Tuesday, November 27 in Knight Auditorium at Webster Groves High School, 100 Selma Ave.
Von Doran, who moved to Webster Groves from California earlier this year, will play electric and acoustic guitars, as well as eleven string fretless guitar, accompanied by Bob Deboo on bass and Miles Vandiver on drums.
Both the Internet in general and Blogger in particular are acting rather spiteful and capricious right now, so this will be a short post.
Two particularly noteworthy gigs this weekend: First, the local debut of the new guy in town, guitarist Matthew Von Doran, as he plays a free concert and clinic tonight at Fazio's Frets and Friends with drummer Miles Vandiver and bassist Bob Deboo.
And on Sunday, the Ivory Perry Park summer concert series wraps up its season with a jazz version of Porgy and Bess, performed by a group led by saxophonist Aaron "Strayhorn" Parker and including Raymond Eldridge, Jr., Jerome "Scrooge" Harris, Clifton McBride, Mike Nelson and Dennis Block. The concert is free and open to the public; Ivory Perry Park is located at 800 Belt (at Cabanne) in west St. Louis.
In between those two shows, Jeff Anderson's Positive Energy Quartet is at Brandt's tonight; Dave Stone performs as usual at Mangia Italiano on Friday; and Willie Akins holds forth at Spruill's early Saturday evening. Meanwhile, Cookie's Jazz and More presents a trio of female vocalists over the weekend, with trumpeter Dan Smith and his quintet featuring singer Debby Lennon performing this evening, Kim Massie on Friday and Trio Tres Bien with Danita Mumphard (pictured) on Saturday.
For an expanded list of local jazz-related events, please see the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar, which will be getting some major updates over the next week, as September gig info arrives from bands and venues and presenters like Webster University and Washington University's Jazz at Holmes series announce their schedules for the rest of the year.
(If you have calendar items, band schedule information, news tips, links, or anything else you think may be of interest to StLJN's readers, please email the information to stljazznotes (at) yahoo (dot) com. If you have photos, MP3s or other digital files, please send links, not attachments.)
You don't necessarily have to believe explicitly in the concept of karma to think that the universe somehow usually manages to balance things out, but you rarely see it happen as quickly as in the story of how guitarist Matthew Von Doran (pictured) recently moved from southern California to the St. Louis area.
Our tale begins with guitarist Corey Christiansen, who's lived in St. Louis for the past six years working for Mel Bay Publications as an author and clinician and doing occasional gigs and recordings. In what's certainly a loss for the local music scene, Christiansen recently decided to move back to Utah, where he grew up and earned his music degree from Utah State University.
That's where the whole universe-balancing thing comes in. As Von Doran recounted by email, "Corey and I have been buddies for a while and I called him a few months ago to see if he was going to be in town this fall so I could stay at his house when I did (a) clinic at Fazio's. That's when he told me he was leaving Mel Bay to move to Utah. I made a joke about buying his house just to use for my show and one thing led to another. Believe me, the last thing I was thinking about this year was to move to STL, but I loved this house and neighborhood so here I be."
The guitarist and his wife are now comfortably ensconced in Christiansen's former digs in Webster Groves, and he's got his debut performance in St. Louis coming up at 7 p.m. this Thursday, when he'll do the aforementioned free concert and clinic at Fazio's Frets and Friends, 14239 Manchester Rd, accompanied by drummer Miles Vandiver and bassist Bob Deboo.
Von Doran studied at GIT in Los Angeles and has gigged in a variety of settings from trio to big band, playing straightahead jazz and fusion as well as many other different types of music. His debut CD as a leader, In This Present Moment, was produced by Yellowjackets bassist Jimmy Haslip and features an impressive roster of musicians including Bob Mintzer, Larry Goldings, Peter Erskine, James Genus, Terri Lyne Carrington and more. You can download a track from the CD by visiting his Web site, and check out more audio samples on his MySpace page.
Though it's always a shame to lose a player of Christiansen's caliber, Von Doran seems like he could be a nice addition to the local music community. So, with apologies to science fiction writer and blogger Cory Doctorow for the headline of this post, StLJN wishes the best to Corey Christiansen and welcomes Matthew Von Doran to St. Louis.
(Edited 8/23/07, with apologies, to correct spelling errors, etc.)
Here's the latest wrap-up of assorted links and short local news items of interest:
